Turboranger Episode 17

Fujii returns with an episode that's meant to be light and a breather after the three action-packed episodes introducing Yamimaru. There's this misconception about Turboranger out there -- by people who probably haven't even watched all of it -- that it's "generic" or "poorly thought-out," so they rely on "stock plots" like the wedding one or a heroes-pretending-to-be-bad one. Here, it's a monster that turns people into kids that would be criticized.

While this scenario is usually played for laughs, Turboranger tries to make it a little more touching and meaningful. The Bouma-Beast of the week is Zuruten's friend who uses a red-colored magatama to absorb and eat people's age, turning them back to kids. (They'll eventually revert to infants and then vanish.) Zuruten wants to put him to use against the Turboranger. When Zuruten tracks down just Youhei, Yamaguchi-sensei takes the hit and is turned back into a kid. Youhei's goofed on Yamaguchi so many times and has been scolded by her so many times, he gets to know her and like her a little more personally after spending time looking out for her.

Yamaguchi means well -- she just wants what's best for her students, so she pushes them and can seem stern, which is a drag for an easygoing guy like Youhei. (There's far worse depictions of stern killjoy teachers than Yamaguchi, who at least DOES seem to have moments showing a sense of humor.) But sometimes you'd just feel like a teacher is unknowable, right? They're authority, they're there to guide and help you, but at the same time, they can feel like strangers. It could be hard to imagine their life outside of the school. It even felt a bit weird when you'd spot a teacher out shopping, right? It's killing independent George!

So, this situation humanizes Yamaguchi for Youhei. The grouch who kills his fun and doesn't want to play along with his gags might have actually been a kid who was about nothing but having fun and playing around. Oh, Kid Yamaguchi (she finally gets a first name in this episode, Misa) is demanding and pesky for Youhei, but she's a good, curious kid, and Youhei comes around to feeling attached to her and is really determined to keep her safe from the Bouma-Beast, who's after her because she picked up the blue magatama he dropped in the earlier attack. (The blue magatama holds the ability to release the energies he's gathered, which would revert the kids back to normal; he seeks it mainly to let out some of the energy -- because he overate. Zuruten's goofy buddy, guys. A bit of a flimsy MacGuffin, but it doesn't detract from what the episode's really about.)

One of the best parts of the episode is when Youhei and the others are at Misa's house and they find a diagram she's made of her students with what she thinks are their positive attributes, and it's another thing that touches them. (Despite Youhei feeling like she's out to get him, her note on him says how cheerful, lively and supportive of a person he is.) Yamaguchi is a crucial character to this show and I like how they handle her and her involvement with the characters, and I think Kyoko Takami plays the character just right. (She's a bit younger than I think the character should be, but she still works.) Yamaguchi gets a couple more episodes down the line where she and her dedication to her students gets to shine. (One of my favorite moments from the finale involves her; she gives it its best scene.) I like that the character works well as the figure of authority AND in humorous scenes, and that the character doesn't lose face or respectability in comedic scenes.

It's with Yamaguchi where I feel like Turboranger might beat Megaranger in the high school department. Yamaguchi brings more of a truth and heart to the school side of the show. Megaranger benefited from letting its heroes act their age, but Megaranger was very "TV high school." They got away with freaking murder on that show! Their teacher was conveniently a slacker idiot, they spent more time in the Digi Club than in any class. Their chance of graduating didn't come into play until the end, when they were booted because the officials were afraid of them. The Turboranger are lively and youthful, but for the most part act the way military Sentais act -- like they're pro heroes! They're all on pretty much the same page in terms of their duty as Turboranger. So Megaranger having the young group who can be typically selfish and have clashes of personality, that might seem more realistic. But the heroing jeopardizes the Turboranger's schooling more and Yamaguchi is more realistic in her caring and worrying and pushing of them, and in her absolute puzzlement of why they're not succeeding as well as they should be.

(You know what's really weird, though? Neither Turboranger or Megaranger really care to show the parents for our heroes. Did they just not want to cast adults? We only saw Kenta's mom! And even then, she appeared only a couple of times. That's just damned bizarre, don't you think? You know parents would be quizzing their kids on slipping grades and where the hell they are when they're out heroing all of the time. It makes these parents look real freakin' awful that their kids are out fighting insane monsters for a year and they're completely oblivious to the situations they get into. Not involving any parents cuts out a lot of dramatic conflict that could be used, and is something that would be unique and specific to the high-school hero premise.)

On a random note, there's a fun scene when Youhei and the others bring Kid Misa to the Turboranger base. She's excited to see Shiron's dollhouse and makes her way to it, shoving her hand into the window just randomly grabbing for things, freaking the heck out of Shiron. It's just this quick forced-perspective shot that surprisingly works, and probably convinced several kids in 1989 that Mayumi Ohmura was actually 18 centimeters tall. I love the neat little filming tricks and oversized props they'll give her to make the illusion work.