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.